MTV announced Wednesday that this weekend's Movie Awards show would recognize Adam Sandler as its Generation Award winner, apparently the highest accolade an actor can receive at the annual festivities. Don't call it synergy, though; such shameless dovetailing is the last thing on the network's mind, with Sandler's market-cornering man-child apparently towering over the imminent opening of You Don't Mess With the Zohan five days later:

He will receive the award for his "amazing contribution to Hollywood" and years of entertaining the network's young viewers, MTV announced Wednesday. ... "A 30-something water boy, a brokenhearted `80s wedding singer and a rejected hockey player-turned-pro golfer ... now that's an impressive resume," said Van Toffler, president of MTV Networks Music, Logo and Films Group, in a statement. Toffler was referring to Sandler's roles in The Waterboy, The Wedding Singer and Happy Gilmore.

Has it really been years? It feels so much... longer. Still, there's plenty to appreciate in the metaphor here — particularly Sandler's clean break from developmentally arrested Jew to hairdresser/lethal Israeli operative — and Defamer salutes the comic for this extraordinary milestone. We only wish Sony would have budgeted for such assiduous product placement when it released Punch-Drunk Love. Was it really Reign Over Me that finally got him over the top?